Sunday, November 22, 2009

AAAaaaarrrgghh! Is there any annoyance in a wargamer's life to compare with a much-anticipated delivery not arriving? (Probably not, beyond the time when I accidentally misjudged picking up some marching Musket-troops and got a line of bayonet-wounds in my hand.) As of the time of writing, no sign of the delivery of the Wars of the Roses Army.

I sent the order on tuesday, thinking 'wednesday if I'm lucky, but count on thursday.' Nothing on Wednesday, so fair enough. Thursday - nothing. Hm. Still, no cause for alarm. There's still friday, and then even if that fails there's saturday morning, so I'll still be able to do something over the weekend. Friday - nothing. Then, damningly, Saturday - nothing! Can Royal Mail really be playing mind-games with me? Does the postman secretly hate me? Is there somebody down at the sorting office with a hankering for late-medieval 6mm figures?

So, the weekend has been spent in something of a wasted-time zone, with me reading up about livery colours and banners to fill the gap. Come on Monday - all my hopes lie with you!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

There have been some new developments afoot, which I thought I'd relay on the blog. The ACW campaign is still on the go, although 'real life' has compelled me to tidy my board away right now and make some space. Soon, I'll return to it! In the meantime, as the blog is meant to cover all my wargaming activities, I thought I'd bring news of a new project.

I pondered a new period for a while, and spent much enjoyable time planning out what I was going to do. The options it finally came to were a pair of Thirty Years' War armies or a set of Wars of The Roses troops. I finally plumped for the latter, and then spent time mulling over scales and daydreaming as I shopped cheerfully around online. I was going to do it in 28mm, then 15mm, then 28mm again, then not at all, then 28mm, then 6mm, then 15mm. An absolutely crazy process, but highly enjoyable! In the end I selected 6mm, not least because in these days money is tight, time tighter, etc. (I'm sure you know how it is!)

What finally swung it was the Baccus 6mm armies and deals. To put it in perspective, a sum of about £30 would have bought me a pretty decent set of figures in 28mm, which I could probably have made a few units with. The same sum in 6mm could buy me an entire army!

My aim isn't just to 'do' the WotR entirely, but to at least partially do it in another form. For some time I've been running a medieval campaign of my own (unpublished on the internet, but written up in my notebooks) for the "Kingdom of Lavancia" as I call it. Lavancia is a fantasy realm in the Late Middle Ages, torn apart by fractious Dukedoms and noble houses. It was initially used by me for my old DBA 15mm Hundred Years' War armies, but I've rather gone off this option. DBA is actually quite poor for doing the HYW, as the variety of troops drops away and a lot of DBA's fun is lost. Plus, bases of four men I painted years ago tend to look a bit underwhelming to my eyes now, after appreciating the impact larger bodies of troops can have!

So, my initial campaign will continue but I'll be widening the timeframe an almost imperceptible amount from the Agincourt, French Conquest, Joan of Arc phase of the HYW and adding in the WotR. I'm also switching away from DBA, as I have recently come across Basic Impetus. It looks more interesting, still admirably simple, plus it requires very few bases to field an army. I can, with only a few tweaks, field the armies listed for HYW English, French, York, and Lancaster. It all sounds pretty good, so I'm all set to go and recount here my full army-collecting progress! The order has been placed, and I'm currently awaiting delivery.

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About Me

I am a wargamer that with many old sets of figures covering the Seven Years War, Ancients, WW1 and ACW in miniature. Most are now banished to the loft, but this blog should cover their use now and again.